FURTHERMORE. . .

One piece of good news from the fiscal crisis: the demand for renaming public buildings after corporations seems to be fading. In Augusta ME there have been no takers for naming rights to the Augusta Civic Center despite a marketing firm's assurance that the name was worth $100,000-$130,000 a year. Since the firm is working on a commission, it's bum advice won't cost the state anything.

A mouse in La Grande Oregon got inside an ATM machine and made a nest for itself out over chewed up $20 bills.

OVER FOUR THOUSAND PEOPLE A YEAR WHO WON'T GET INVITED TO THE WHITE HOUSE TO HAVE BEER WITH THEIR ARRESTING OFFICER

Colbert I King, Washington Post - A 2003 [police complaints] board study found that D.C. police made far more "disorderly conduct" arrests per capita than cops in other large cities. Sometimes, the board reported, it appeared that the arrests were retaliation for rude behavior by residents during their encounters with the police.

That's a serious error. Disorderly conduct laws apply to a breach of the public's -- not a cop's -- peace.

As the Office of Citizen Complaint Review noted, echoing the D.C. Court of Appeals, and courts in other jurisdictions such as Massachusetts, a "police officer is expected to have a greater tolerance for verbal assaults . . . and because the police are especially trained to resist provocation, we expect them to remain peaceful in the face of verbal abuse that might provoke or offend the ordinary citizen."

Too many citizens don't know that. They often choose to post and forfeit collateral to end the arrest and avoid having to appear in court, even though the arrest may be improper. True, no conviction. But the arrest stays on the books.

Since the 2003 report, the D.C. police department has modified its arrest procedures for disorderly conduct to make the collateral forfeiture process clearer. It has also provided more training about the law and arrest procedures, and it has stressed that officers must follow the law.

Residents are arrested in D.C. for disorderly conduct in large numbers: nearly 5,000 in 2007, more than 4,200 in 2008 and 4,469 this year as of Aug. 5.

WATER WARS IN MONTANA

Karl Puckett, Great Falls Tribune - The lower Teton River is drying up almost yearly and drought isn't the cause, insists rancher Steve Kelly, who is frustrated by the shortages of water for his hayfields, livestock and home. Advertisement

"The alternative was to dig wells," said Kelly, who ranches between Carter and Fort Benton. "Then the wells went dry."

Upstream and downstream users in the Teton River basin, which spans almost 200 miles through the heart of agricultural country, are feuding over scarce water supplies.

Kelly and others from Carter to Loma are blaming irrigators 100 miles to their west near the Rocky Mountains for using so much water that flows aren't strong enough to make it to the plains where they live.

But that charge is denied by Choteau-area ranchers such as Ross Salmond, president of Eldorado Cooperative Canal Co., who get first crack at the river and use its water to make hay and other crops flourish based on a 100-year-old court decision. . .

Similar disputes over water are occurring across the state as part of a massive, decades-long effort by the state to examine the accuracy of every historic water rights claim in Montana. Statewide, there are 219,000 pre-1973 claims in 85 river basins.

But the users in the Teton are in a particularly fierce battle, water experts say.

The river has 2,500 claims to its waters, and farmers, ranchers and residents have filed 500 objections to how others are using the river system.

FISCAL CRISIS HITS BOTH FAITH AND WORKS

Tom Benning, Wall Street Journal - Across the country, congregations of all sizes and denominations are struggling with issues of faith and finance as the recession grinds on. Churches are scouring their budgets for wasteful spending. And many have taken the unusual step of reducing staff.

While the collection plate no longer overflows, churches are seeing an increase in requests for support -- be it for spiritual guidance, monetary help or career advice. And religious leaders have the added task of explaining job losses and pay cuts in spiritual terms.

Churches, synagogues and mosques have historically fared reasonably well during recessions, even as other institutions struggled. But the magnitude of the current downturn has caught up with places of worship, too.

Richard Klopp, associate director of the Lake Institute on Faith and Giving at Indiana University, said the economic climate for religious organizations is the worst in at least 30 years, forcing membership drives and construction projects to take a back seat to balancing the budget. . .

A handful of churches across the country have faced foreclosure, and in places like Michigan, the cash crunch has been especially severe. . .

EARTH MAY HAVE ONLY A HALF BILLION MORE YEARS TO LIVE

Space Fellowship - One of the hottest topics at this year's XXVIIth General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil involves the study of the astrophysical conditions favorable for the development and survival of primordial life. New research shows that compared to middle-aged stars like the Sun, newly formed stars spin faster generating strong magnetic fields that result in emission of more intense levels of X-rays, ultraviolet rays and charged particles -- all of which could wreak havoc on budding atmospheres and have a dramatic effect on the development of emerging life forms. . .

The Sun is awe-inspiring and fearsome -- a superheated ball about 300,000 times as heavy as the Earth, radiating immense amounts of energy and hurling great globs of hot plasma millions of kilometers out into space. The intense radiation from this giant powerhouse would be fatal close to the Sun, but for a planet like Earth, orbiting at a safe distance from these violent outbursts, and bathed by a gentler radiation, the Sun can provide the steady energy supply needed to sustain life. Now sedate and middle-aged, at around 4.5 billion years old, the Sun's wild youth is behind it.

Edward Guinan, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Villanova University, and his "Sun-in-Time" project team have studied stars that are analogues of the Sun at both early and late stages of its lifecycle. These "solar proxies" enable scientists to look through a window in time to see the harsh conditions prevailing in the early or future solar system, as well as in planetary systems around other stars. . . . This work has revealed that the Sun rotated more than ten times faster in its youth (over four billion years ago) than today. The faster a star rotates, the harder the magnetic dynamo at its core works, generating a stronger magnetic field, so the young Sun emitted X-rays and ultraviolet radiation up to several hundred times stronger than the Sun today. . .

Guinan explains a surprising realisation that emerged from their work: "The Sun does not seem like the perfect star for a system where life might arise. Although it is hard to argue with the Sun's success as it so far is the only star known to host a planet with life, our studies indicate that the ideal stars to support planets suitable for life for tens of billions of years may be a smaller slower burning 'orange dwarf' with a longer lifetime than the Sun -- about 20-40 billion years. These stars, also called K stars, are stable stars with a habitable zone that remains in the same place for tens of billions of years. They are 10 times more numerous than the Sun, and may provide the best potential habitat for life in the long run". He continues: "On the more speculative side we have also found indications that planets like Earth are also not necessarily the best suited for life to thrive. Planets two to three times more massive than the Earth, with a higher gravity, can retain the atmosphere better. They may have a larger liquid iron core giving a stronger magnetic field that protects against the early onslaught of cosmic rays. Furthermore, a larger planet cools more slowly and maintains its magnetic protection. This kind of planet may be more likely to harbor life. I would not trade though -- you can't argue with success".. . .

The scientists agree that we do yet know how ubiquitous or how fragile life is, but as Guinan concludes: "The Earth's period of habitability is nearly over -- on a cosmological timescale. In a half to one billion years the Sun will start to be too luminous and warm for water to exist in liquid form on Earth, leading to a runaway greenhouse effect in less than 2 billion years".

PRISONERS STEALING POEMS TO WIN PRIZES

Telegraph, UK - A project to encourage prisoners to explore their inner self through verse has suffered a setback after inmates were caught plagiarising poems in a bid to win a L25 prize. . .

The prisoners' newspaper Inside Time has introduced strict checks on its poetry page because some contributors had copied out well-known poems and submitted them under their own names.

In one case an inmate stole work by Robert Frost, the American poet, and another lifted song lyrics from James Brown, the soul and funk singer who died in 2006. . .

"We now check every poem selected before going to print," the newspaper's editors said in a warning printed in this month's edition.

MEDICAL MISTAKES ARE LEADING CAUSE OF ACCIDENTAL DEATH

Houston Chronicle - Experts estimate that a staggering 98,000 people die from preventable medical errors each year. More Americans die each month of preventable medical injuries than died in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

In addition, a federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study concluded that 99,000 patients a year succumb to hospital-acquired infections. Almost all of those deaths, experts say, also are preventable.

These numbers are not absolutes. There is no definitive study - which is part of the problem - but all of the available research indicates that the death toll from preventable medical injuries approaches 200,000 per year in the United States. . .

A national investigation by Hearst Newspapers found that the medical community, the federal government and most states have overwhelmingly failed to take the effective steps outlined in the report a decade ago.

Hearst also found that in states like California that have put some regulations in place, hospitals often ignore the rules without penalty.

Consequently, over that period, as many as 2 million Americans have died needlessly of preventable medical mistakes. . .

The AMA and the American Hospital Association vehemently opposed an attempt by President Bill Clinton to create a mandatory reporting system for serious errors. . .

By contrast, Americans know exactly how many people die from car accidents each year because lawmakers long ago decided that was a step toward preventing them.

OBAMA & REPUBLICANS HAVE SABOTAGED SUPPORT FOR SINGLE PAYER

Progressive Review - Only 32% of voters nationwide favor a single-payer health care system where the federal government provides coverage for everyone. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 57% are opposed to a single-payer plan.

Fifty-two percent believe such a system would lead to a lower quality of care while 13% believe care would improve. Twenty-seven percent think that the quality of care would remain about the same.

Forty-five percent also say a single-payer system would lead to higher health care costs while 24% think lower costs would result. Nineteen percent think prices would remain about the same.

There's wide political disagreement over the single-payer issue. Sixty-two percent of Democrats favor a single-payer system, but 87% of Republicans are opposed to one. As for those not affiliated with either major party, 22% favor a single-payer approach while 63% are opposed.

As recently as March a CBS-New York Times poll found that 59% of Americans answer yes to the question: "Should the government in Washington provide national health insurance, or is this something that should be left only to private enterprise?" This paralleled a poll a year earlier that found that 64% said the federal government should guarantee health insurance for all Americans.

Since March there has been a concentrated effort by the Democratic extremist middle - led by Barack Obama - and the Republican right to undermine support for single payer as they met the demands of private insurers. It seems to have worked.

MAJORITY OF AMERICANS OPPOSE AFGHAN WAR

Progressive Review - According to a CNN poll, for the first time a majority of Americans - 54% - oppose the Afghan war. This comes at a time when there is increasing talk of raising American troop levels even beyond those even publicly indicated. And here's an irony from CNN Polling Director Keating Holland: "Afghanistan is almost certainly the Obama policy that Republicans like the most. Nearly two-thirds of Republicans support the war in Afghanistan. Three-quarters of Democrats oppose the war." Once again Obama is significantly to the right of even his own constituency.

RECOVERED HISTORY: GETTING TO KNOW SQUEAKY FROMME

Paul Krassner, Huffington Post - This month, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, a member of the Charles Manson family, is scheduled to be released on parole from a federal prison in Texas after serving 34 years behind bars for the attempted assassination of President Gerald Ford in 1975. Squeaky did not participate in the Tate/LaBianca killings, which I began investigating in 1971.

Manson was on Death Row -- before capital punishment was repealed (and later reinstated, but not retroactively) in California -- so I was unable to meet with him. Reporters had to settle for an interview with any prisoner awaiting the gas chamber, and it was unlikely that Charlie would be selected at random for me.

In the course of our correspondence, there was a letter from Manson consisting of a few pages of gibberish about Christ and the Devil, but at one point, right in the middle, he wrote in tiny letters, "Call Squeaky," with her phone number. I called, and we arranged to meet at her apartment in Los Angeles. On an impulse, I brought several tabs of acid with me on the plane.

Squeaky resembled a typical redheaded, freckle-faced waitress who sneaks a few tokes of pot in the lavatory, a regular girl-next-door except perhaps for the unusually challenging nature of her personality, plus the scar of an X that she had gouged and burned into her forehead as a visual reminder of her commitment to Charlie. That same symbol also covered the third eyes of her roommates, Manson family members Sandra Good and Brenda McCann.

"We've crossed ourselves out of this entire system," Squeaky explained.

They all had short hairstyles growing in now, after having completely shaved their heads. They continued to sit on the sidewalk near the Hall of Justice every day, like a coven of faithful nuns bearing witness to Manson's martyrdom.

Sandy Good had seen me perform at The Committee Theater in San Francisco a few years previously. Now she told me that when she first met Charlie and people asked her what he was like, she had compared him to Lenny Bruce and me. It was the weirdest compliment I ever got, but I began to understand Manson's peculiar charisma.

With his sardonic rap, mixed with psychedelic drugs and real-life theater games such as "creepy-crawling" and stealing, he had deprogrammed his family from the values of mainstream society, but reprogrammed them with his own perverted philosophy, a cosmic version of the racism perpetuated by the prison system that had served as his family.

Manson had stepped on Sandy's eyeglasses, thrown away her birth control pills, and inculcated her with racist insensibility. . .

We went to the home of some friends of the family, smoked a few joints of soothing grass, and listened to music. They sang along with the lyrics of "The Horse With No Name" -- which I figured was about heroin -- "In the desert you can't remember your name, 'cause there ain't no one there to give you no pain." I was basking in the afterglow of the Moody Blues' "Om" song when Sandy began to speak of "the gray people" -- regular citizens going about their daily business -- that she had been observing from her vantage point on the corner near the Hall of Justice.

"We were just sitting there," she said, "and they were walking along, kind of avoiding us. It's like watching a live movie in front of you. Sometimes I just wanted to kill the gray people, because that was the only way they would be able to experience the total Now."

That was an expression that Manson had borrowed from Scientology. When ranch-hand Shorty Shea was killed, he was first tied up, a few of the girls gave him blowjobs, and when he climaxed, his head was chopped off because he had reached the Now.

Later, Sandy said, "I didn't mean it literally about killing the gray people. I was speaking from another dimension.". . .

When we returned to their apartment, Sandy asked if I wanted to take a hot bath. I felt ambivalent. One of the defense attorneys had told me that he participated in a memorable threesome with Squeaky and Sandy, but I had also been told by a reporter, "It certainly levels the high to worry about getting stabbed while fucking the Manson ladies in the bunkhouse at the Spahn Ranch -- I've found that the only satisfactory position is sitting up, back to the wall, facing the door."

Visions of the classic shower scene in Psycho flashed through my mind, but despite the shrill self-righteousness that infected their True Believer Syndrome, these women had charmed me with their apparent honesty and humor, not to mention their distorted sense of compassion. They sensed my hesitation, and Squeaky, not Sandy, confronted me.

"You're afraid of me," she said, "aren't you?"

"Not really. Should I be?"

Sandy tried to reassure me: "She's beautiful, Paul. Just look into her eyes. Isn't she beautiful?"

Squeaky and I stared silently at each other for a while -- I recalled that Manson had written, "I never picked up anyone who had not already been discarded by society" -- and eventually my eyes began to tear. There were tears in Squeaky's eyes too. She asked me to try on Charlie's vest. It felt like a bizarre honor to participate in this family ceremony. The corduroy vest was a solid inch thick with embroidery -- snakes and dragons and devilish designs including human hair that had been woven into the multi-colored patterns.

Sandy took her bath, but instead of getting into the tub with her -- assuming her invitation had included that -- I sat fully dressed on the toilet and we talked, while I tried not to ogle her pert nipples.

A GOOD SUMMARY OF THE OBAMA BIRTH CONTROVERSY

Times, UK - A naive person might believe that Barack Hussein Obama was born, as he has long said he was, in Hawaii to a young American mother and a distant father from Kenya. There are notices in two local papers and the certification of birth is filed in the state of Hawaii’s records.

An independent body - FactCheck.org - part of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, asked to see a copy of the original during last year’s campaign. FactCheck is non-partisan and takes all sorts of politicians’ claims to task. Here’s its take on Obama’s birth certificate: “FactCheck.org staffers have now seen, touched, examined and photographed the original birth certificate. We conclude that it meets all of the requirements from the State Department for proving US citizenship. Claims that the document lacks a raised seal or a signature are false. . . Our conclusion: Obama was born in the USA just as he has always said.”

You may be persuaded. Once I’d seen the short-form certificate online, verified by independent journalists and vouched for by state authorities, I was, too. But staggering numbers of Americans remain skeptical. In fact, a majority of Republican voters - 58% - either do not believe or are unsure that Obama is a natural-born American citizen. That means most Republicans believe Obama is constitutionally illegitimate in the presidency because the constitution reserves it for those born in America. . .

The most common theory is that Obama was born in Kenya while his mother was visiting his father. The Hawaiian birth certificate exists, the skeptics claim, because Hawaii recognizes as natural-born citizens those born to American mothers temporarily outside the United States. The only problem with that theory is the certificate would mention that fact and it doesn’t.

So Obama was born where all the evidence says he was: Honolulu. Why would a woman in her last month of pregnancy travel halfway around the world to deliver a child in a developing country and then bring him back home, even though he wouldn’t have had a passport? How would she get him into the United States unless someone at the border was in cahoots? . . .

AMERICA'S OVER THE TOP SEX OFFENDER LAWS

Economist - America’s sex-offender laws are the strictest of any rich democracy. Convicted rapists and child-molesters are given long prison sentences. When released, they are put on sex-offender registries. In most states this means that their names, photographs and addresses are published online, so that fearful parents can check whether a child-molester lives nearby. Under the Adam Walsh Act of 2006, another law named after a murdered child, all states will soon be obliged to make their sex-offender registries public. Such rules are extremely popular. Most parents will support any law that promises to keep their children safe. Other countries are following America’s example, either importing Megan’s laws or increasing penalties: after two little girls were murdered by a school caretaker, Britain has imposed multiple conditions on who can visit schools.

Which makes it all the more important to ask whether America’s approach is the right one. In fact its sex-offender laws have grown self-defeatingly harsh. . . Stricter curbs on pedophiles win votes. And to sound severe, such curbs must be stronger than the laws in place, which in turn were proposed by politicians who wished to appear tough themselves. Few politicians dare to vote against such laws, because if they do, the attack ads practically write themselves. . .

In all, 674,000 Americans are on sex-offender registries-more than the population of Vermont, North Dakota or Wyoming. The number keeps growing partly because in several states registration is for life and partly because registries are not confined to the sort of murderer who ensnared Megan Kanka. According to Human Rights Watch, at least five states require registration for people who visit prostitutes, 29 require it for consensual sex between young teenagers and 32 require it for indecent exposure. Some prosecutors are now stretching the definition of “distributing child pornography” to include teens who text half-naked photos of themselves to their friends.

How dangerous are the people on the registries? A state review of one sample in Georgia found that two-thirds of them posed little risk. . .

Registration is often just the start. Sometimes sex offenders are barred from living near places where children congregate. In Georgia no sex offender may live or work within 1,000 feet of a school, church, park, skating rink or swimming pool. In Miami an exclusion zone of 2,500 feet has helped create a camp of homeless offenders under a bridge. Make the punishment fit the crime

There are three main arguments for reform. First, it is unfair to impose harsh penalties for small offences. Perhaps a third of American teenagers have sex before they are legally allowed to, and a staggering number have shared revealing photographs with each other. This is unwise, but hardly a reason for the law to ruin their lives. Second, America’s sex laws often punish not only the offender, but also his family. If a man who once slept with his 15-year-old girlfriend is barred for ever from taking his own children to a playground, those children suffer.

Third, harsh laws often do little to protect the innocent. The police complain that having so many petty sex offenders on registries makes it hard to keep track of the truly dangerous ones. Cash that might be spent on treating sex offenders-which sometimes works-is spent on huge indiscriminate registries. Public registers drive serious offenders underground, which makes them harder to track and more likely to reoffend. And registers give parents a false sense of security: most sex offenders are never even reported, let alone convicted.

It would not be hard to redesign America’s sex laws. Instead of lumping all sex offenders together on the same list for life, states should assess each person individually and include only real threats. Instead of posting everything on the internet, names could be held by the police, who would share them only with those, such as a school, who need to know. Laws that bar sex offenders from living in so many places should be repealed, because there is no evidence that they protect anyone: a predator can always travel. The money that a repeal saves could help pay for monitoring compulsive molesters more intrusively-through ankle bracelets and the like.

CHRIS HEDGES: THE GREENS WERE RIGHT

Chris Hedges, Truth Dig - The American empire has not altered under Barack Obama. It kills as brutally and indiscriminately in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan as it did under George W. Bush. It steals from the U.S. treasury to enrich the corporate elite as rapaciously. It will not give us universal health care, abolish the Bush secrecy laws, end torture or “extraordinary rendition,” restore habeas corpus or halt the warrantless wiretapping and monitoring of citizens. It will not push through significant environmental reform, regulate Wall Street or end our relationship with private contractors that provide mercenary armies to fight our imperial wars and produce useless and costly weapons systems.

The sad reality is that all the well-meaning groups and individuals who challenge our permanent war economy and the doctrine of pre-emptive war, who care about sustainable energy, fight for civil liberties and want corporate malfeasance to end, were once again suckered by the Democratic Party. . . . Our last hope is to step outside of the two-party system and build movements that defy the Democrats and the Republicans. If we fail to do this we will continue to undergo a corporate coup d’etat in slow motion that will end in feudalism.

We owe Ralph Nader, Cynthia McKinney and the Green Party an apology. They were right. If a few million of us had had the temerity to stand behind our ideals rather than our illusions and the empty slogans peddled by the Obama campaign we would have a platform. We forgot that social reform never comes from accommodating the power structure but from frightening it. The Liberty Party, which fought slavery, the suffragists who battled for women’s rights, the labor movement, and the civil rights movement knew that the question was not how do we get good people to rule-those attracted to power tend to be venal mediocrities-but how do we limit the damage the powerful do to us. These mass movements were the engines for social reform, the correctives to our democracy and the true protectors of the rights of citizens. We have surrendered this power. It is vital to reclaim it. Where is the foreclosure movement? Where is the robust universal health care or anti-war movement? Where is the militant movement for sustainable energy?

“Something is broken,” Nader said when I reached him at his family home in Connecticut. “We are not at the Bangladesh level in terms of passivity, but we are getting there. No one sees anything changing. There is no new political party to give people a choice. The progressive forces have no hammer. When they abandoned our campaign they told the Democrats we have nowhere to go and will take whatever you give us. The Democrats are under no heat in the electoral arena from the left.

“There comes a point when the public imbibes the ultimatum of the plutocracy,” Nader said when asked about public apathy. “They have bought into the belief that if it protests it will be brutalized by the police. If they have Muslim names they will be subjected to Patriot Act treatment. This has scared the hell out of the underclass. They will be called terrorists.

“This is the third television generation,” Nader said. “They have grown up watching screens. They have not gone to rallies. Those are history now. They hear their parents and grandparents talk about marches and rallies. They have little toys and gizmos that they hold in their hands. They have no idea of any public protest or activity. It is a tapestry of passivity.

“They have been broken,” Nader said of the working class. “How many times have their employers threatened them with going abroad? How many times have they threatened the workers with outsourcing? The polls on job insecurity are record-high by those who have employment. And the liberal intelligentsia have failed them. They [the intellectuals] have bought into carping and making lecture fees as the senior fellow at the institute of so-and-so. Look at the top 50 intelligentsia-not one of them supported our campaign, not one of them has urged for street action and marches.”

THE PUBLIC HEALTHCARE YOU DON'T HEAR ABOUT

Coburn Dukehart, NPR - some of what I saw at the county fairgrounds in Wise, Va., last month left me wordless.

For two-and-a-half days, about 800 doctors, nurses, dentists and optometrists treated 2,700 uninsured and underinsured people, most from Appalachia. No one was asked for an insurance card. There were no co-pays. And there were no bills.

A Tennessee-based group called Remote Area Medical, or RAM, arranged the volunteer help, brought in donated equipment and supplies and paid for everything else. . .

What: Health care providers saw 2,715 patients and performed 2,671 medical exams, 1,088 eye tests and 1,850 dental exams. They extracted 3,857 teeth and put in 1,628 fillings.

Who: Patients came from 16 states; 30 percent were repeat patients.

Of the patients, 51 percent are uninsured, 40.3 percent are on Medicaid or Medicare, and just 7.3 percent have employer or private insurance. Fewer than 1 percent of patients have dental or vision insurance.

Twenty-six percent of the people are employed, 40.6 are unemployed, 4.7 percent are retired and 4.8 percent are children.

Cost: The organizers paid about $250,000 out of pocket to run the event, and they provided an estimated $1.5 million worth of care. . .

Close to 4,000 teeth ended up in buckets. Some 20-year-olds had every tooth pulled. A 4-year-old had every tooth filled. Out of the hundreds treated, only 11 had dental insurance.

I arrived home from Virginia with a badly infected finger. It was swollen, red and painful. So I drove to the doctor, presented my insurance card and wrote a check for $15 for the co-pay. My doctor took a scalpel to the infection and sent me to the pharmacy for antibiotics. All that took an hour. . .

I have never felt so privileged to have a good job and good insurance and easy access to care without long drives and long nights and a yearlong wait.

The next RAM free clinic begins Tuesday in the Forum, the former basketball arena outside Los Angeles. Doctors, dentists and optometrists will work 12 hours a day for eight days. Organizers expect to treat 10,000 people.

NY POLICE MAKE MORE POT ARRESTS THAN ANY OTHER CITY IN WORLD

Harry G. Levine, AlterNet - Marijuana possession is decriminalized in New York State. Nonetheless, New York City makes more pot arrests than any city in the world. . .

The arrests for marijuana possession first increased dramatically under Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. They have continued unabated under Mayor Michael Bloomberg. By 2008 Bloomberg had arrested more people for pot possession than Giuliani, and more than other mayor in the world.

Why has the NYPD continued to order narcotics and patrol officers to make so many misdemeanor pot arrests? For many reasons. The arrests are easy, safe, and provide training for new officers. The arrests gain overtime pay for patrol and narcotics police and their supervisors. The pot arrests allow officers to show productivity, which counts for promotions and choice assignments. Marijuana arrests enable the NYPD to obtain fingerprints, photographs and other data on many young people they would not otherwise have in their criminal justice databases. And there is very little public criticism and thus far no political opposition to New York City's marijuana arrest crusade.

Do the pot arrests reduce serious and violent crimes? No, if anything they increase other crimes. Professors Harcourt and Ludwig at the University of Chicago Law School analyzed NYPD data and concluded that the pot possession arrests took officers off the street and distracted them from other crime-fighting activities. "New York City’s marijuana policing strategy," they reported, "is having exactly the wrong effect on serious crime – increasing it, rather than decreasing it.” Veteran police officers agree terming the possession arrests "a waste of time." The arrests drain resources not just of police, but also of courts, jails, prosecutors and public defenders.

Perhaps most appalling is who the police are arresting for marijuana possession. U.S. government studies have consistently found that young whites use marijuana at higher rates than do young blacks or Latinos. But the NYPD has long arrested young blacks and Latinos for pot possession at much higher rates than whites.

DURBIN READY TO DUMP PUBLIC OPTION

Huffington Post - One of Barack Obama's chief allies in the United States Senate hinted on Sunday that a public insurance option could go by the wayside as Congress hammers out its health care legislation.

Appearing on CNN's "State of the Union," Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), one of the chamber's foremost progressives, said that while he supported a government-run option for insurance, he was "open" to alternatives.

"Just understand that, after we pass this bill -- and I hope we do -- in the Senate, it will go to conference committee," said Durbin. "We'll have a chance to work out all of our differences."

"So we'll see how this ends, but I don't want the process to be filibustered to failure, which unfortunately, many senators are trying to do," Durbin added. "I want to make sure that we do something positive for the American people."

AFGHAN COMMANDER: TALIBAN HAVE UPPER HAND

Wall Street Journal - The Taliban have gained the upper hand in Afghanistan, the top American commander there said, forcing the U.S. to change its strategy in the eight-year-old conflict by increasing the number of troops in heavily populated areas like the volatile southern city of Kandahar, the insurgency's spiritual home. Gen. Stanley McChrystal warned that means U.S. casualties, already running at record levels, will remain high for months to come. . .

The militants are mounting sophisticated attacks that combine roadside bombs with ambushes by small teams of heavily armed militants, causing significant numbers of U.S. fatalities, he said. July was the bloodiest month of the war for American and British forces, and 12 more American troops have already been killed in August. . .

The Obama administration is in the midst of an Afghan buildup that will push U.S. troop levels here to a record 68,000 by year end. There are roughly an additional 30,000 troops from North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries and other allies.

The prospect of more troops rankles some of Gen. McChrystal's advisers, who worry the American military footprint in Afghanistan is already too large. "How many people do you bring in before the Afghans say, 'You're acting like the Russians'?" said one senior military official, referring to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. "That's the big debate going on in the headquarters right now."

MAJOR PRISON RIOT IN CALIFORNIA

Guardian, UK - A California prison was in lockdown after a riot and fire left 250 inmates injured, some critically. At least 55 of the prisoners at the California institution for men in the city of Chino were taken to hospital with injuries including stab wounds.

Foam projectiles were fired by 80 prison guards who also used pepper spray and batons in a bid to restore order at the jail, 35 miles east of Los Angeles. Witnesses in the area reported hearing gunshots and explosions.

Prison spokesman Mark Hargrove said the riot involved 1,300 inmates in seven dormitory-style barracks and lasted for about four hours.

At least one unit caught fire and inmates fled into a yard while firefighters fought the blaze.

The trouble started at about 8.20pm local time on Saturday and spread quickly through the medium-security jail. Reports suggested that the riot may have been racially motivated and involved black and Hispanic inmates.

A similar riot broke out at the Chino prison in December 2006.

CONSUMER REPORTS BACK TO SCHOOL APPLIANCE BUYING GUIDE

BUSH UNLEASHED BIBLICAL BABBLE ON CHIRAC

James A. Haught, Secular Humanism - President George W. Bush told French President Jacques Chirac in early 2003 that Iraq must be invaded to thwart Gog and Magog, the Bible's satanic agents of the Apocalypse. . .

Now out of office, Chirac recounts that the American leader appealed to their "common faith" (Christianity) and told him: "Gog and Magog are at work in the Middle East. . . The biblical prophecies are being fulfilled. . . This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people's enemies before a New Age begins."

This bizarre episode occurred while the White House was assembling its "coalition of the willing" to unleash the Iraq invasion. Chirac says he was boggled by Bush's call and "wondered how someone could be so superficial and fanatical in their beliefs."

After the 2003 call, the puzzled French leader didn't comply with Bush's request. Instead, his staff asked Thomas Romer, a theologian at the University of Lausanne, to analyze the weird appeal. Dr. Romer explained that the Old Testament book of Ezekiel contains two chapters in which God rages against Gog and Magog, sinister and mysterious forces menacing Israel. Jehovah vows to smite them savagely, to "turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws," and slaughter them ruthlessly. In the New Testament, the mystical book of Revelation envisions Gog and Magog gathering nations for battle, "and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.". . .

Subsequently, ex-President Chirac confirmed the nutty event in a long interview with French journalist Jean-Claude Maurice. . .

Oddly, mainstream media are ignoring this alarming revelation that Bush may have been half-cracked when he started his Iraq war. My own paper, The Charleston Gazette in West Virginia, is the only U.S. newspaper to report it so far. Canada's Toronto Star recounted the story, calling it a "stranger-than-fiction disclosure . . . which suggests that apocalyptic fervor may have held sway within the walls of the White House." Fortunately, online commentary sites are spreading the news, filling the press void.

The French revelation jibes with other known aspects of Bush's renowned evangelical certitude. For example, a few months after his phone call to Chirac, Bush attended a 2003 summit in Egypt. The Palestinian foreign minister later said the American president told him he was "on a mission from God" to defeat Iraq. At that time, the White House called this claim "absurd."

Recently, GQ magazine revealed that former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld attached warlike Bible verses and Iraq battle photos to war reports he hand-delivered to Bush. One declared: "Put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground."

It's awkward to say openly, but now-departed President Bush is a religious crackpot, an ex-drunk of small intellect who "got saved." He never should have been entrusted with the power to start wars.

For six years, Americans really haven't known why he launched the unnecessary Iraq attack. Official pretexts turned out to be baseless. Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction after all, and wasn't in league with terrorists, as the White House alleged. Collapse of his asserted reasons led to speculation about hidden motives: Was the invasion loosed to gain control of Iraq's oil-or to protect Israel-or to complete Bush's father's vendetta against the late dictator Saddam Hussein? Nobody ever found an answer.

PLACES THREATENED BY SEA LEVEL RISE TAKES ON GLOBAL WARMING

Global Post - The highest hill in the island nation of Tuvalu reaches just 15-feet above sea level. Built on a scattering of low-lying coral atolls, it wouldn't take much of a rise in sea levels to put much of its territory underwater.

Worse yet, there is little the nation's 12,000 inhabitants can do to head off such a catastrophe - one that is ever more likely with the impending threat of climate change. . .

Yet the tiny Polynesian nation is taking on the challenge of mitigation anyway. Eight years after the country's president petitioned its neighbors to commit to accept its citizens as environmental refugees, Tuvalu announced last month it plans to cut its carbon output to zero, switching all of its electricity production to renewable sources by 2020.

"We look forward to the day when our nation offers an example to all - powered entirely by natural resources such as the sun and the wind," Kausea Natano, the country's public utilities minister, said in a statement. (Currently, one American produces the same amount of greenhouse gases as 50 of the islands' resident.)

Tuvalu's case is representative of the problems faced by poor countries all over that find themselves vulnerable to climate change. Whether threatened by rising sea levels (small island nations, low-lying Bangladesh), at risk of succumbing to drought (East Africa, parts of Latin America) or simply likely to be hit harder by natural disasters (the whole world), these nations find themselves in jeopardy without being able to do much about it.

When in 2001 Tuvalu declared that it would most likely have to evacuate, its government stopped short of making a formal petition. Last summer, however, the neighboring nation of Kiribati made an official request for help in evacuating its 100,000 citizens, and the Maldives have since announced it was establishing an investment fund in hopes of being able to buy land for its 300,000 residents when it too succumbs to the waves.

In Bangladesh, where 150 million people crowd into a country where most of the land is at or just above sea level, officials see a direct correlation between the greenhouse gases emitted by people in rich countries and their responsibility for the fate of Bangladesh's citizens.

The country's leading climate change expert, A. Atiq Rahman, the executive director of the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies, likes to joke that people in the rich world should make up for their greenhouse gases by taking in environmental refugees, hosting one Bangladeshi family for every ten thousand tons of carbon emitted.

WHY NOT A PUBLIC OPTION IN BANKING?

Ellen Brown, Global Research - In President Obama's July 17 weekly address, he repeated his call for a public option in health care, in order to "increase competition and keep insurance companies honest" and to "put an end to the worst practices of the insurance industry." The same call needs to be made for a public option in banking. In some countries, publicly-owned banks have operated alongside privately-owned banks for decades; and in those countries, the current crisis has served to show that public banks generally do a better job of serving the people and protecting their interests than their private counterparts.

In Canada, the trendsetter in public banking is the province of Alberta. Alberta's publicly-owned banking system, called Alberta Treasury Branches or ATB, was initiated during the Great Depression to give the private banks a run for the public's money. . .

From 1929 to 1933, the average annual income in Alberta had fallen from $548 to $212, a staggering 61 percent drop. Interest payments continued to bleed the farmers of cash, and taxes had increased. In 1935, Albertans decided they wanted a change and swept the Alberta Social Credit Party into power. In 1938, the system of Alberta Treasury Branches was set up literally as a branch of the provincial government. The stated goal of the ATB was to "provide the people with alternative facilities for gaining access to their credit resources." Bankers initially scoffed at Alberta's attempts to establish a competing economic system, but Albertans had high hopes and rushed to deposit their meager savings in the Treasury Branches. The government invested in the ATB only once, contributing $200,000 in 1938. That was all that was necessary, as the system was self-funding after that. By 1946, the ATB was turning an annual profit of $65,000. According to a booklet titled "Albertans Investing in Alberta 1938-1998," by 1998 the ATB had remitted $68 million to the provincial government.

In India, public sector banks also operate alongside private sector banks. Privatization has made significant inroads into India's banking system, but fully 80 percent of the country's banks are still government-owned. . .

In China, private-sector banking has also made some inroads; but state-owned banks still predominate. In a June 2009 article titled "The Chinese Puzzle: Why Is China Growing When Other Export Powerhouses Aren't?", Brad Setser noted that nearly all countries relying heavily on exports for growth have experienced major downturns and remain in the doldrums -- except for China. When China's external markets fell off, the government turned its credit machine inward to domestic development. Its state-owned banks engaged in a huge increase in lending, with local governments and state enterprises borrowing on a large scale. The result was to create a real fiscal stimulus that put workers to work and got money circulating again in the economy.

In the United States, the trendsetter in public banking is the state of North Dakota, which has owned its own bank for nearly a century. North Dakota is one of only two states (along with Montana) that are currently not facing budget shortfalls. Ever since 1919, North Dakota's revenues have been deposited in the state-owned Bank of North Dakota. Under the "fractional reserve" lending scheme open to all banks, these deposits are then available for leveraging many times over as loans. Other banks in the state do not see the BND as a threat because it partners with them and backstops them, serving as a sort of central bank for the state. BND's loans are not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation but are guaranteed by the state. North Dakota has plenty of money for student loans, makes 1% loans to startup farms, has the lowest unemployment rate in the country, and is generally not feeling the pinch of the credit crisis at all.

THE REAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE U.S. AND CANADIAN HEALTHCARE SYSTEMS

Michael M. Rachlis, LA Times - Universal health insurance is on the American policy agenda for the fifth time since World War II. In the 1960s, the U.S. chose public coverage for only the elderly and the very poor, while Canada opted for a universal program for hospitals and physicians' services.

As a policy analyst, I know there are lessons to be learned from studying the effect of different approaches in similar jurisdictions. But, as a Canadian with lots of American friends and relatives, I am saddened that Americans seem incapable of learning them. . .

On coverage, all Canadians have insurance for hospital and physician services. There are no deductibles or co-pays. Most provinces also provide coverage for programs for home care, long-term care, pharmaceuticals and durable medical equipment, although there are co-pays.

On the U.S. side, 46 million people have no insurance, millions are underinsured and health care bills bankrupt more than 1 million Americans every year. . .

On costs, Canada spends 10 percent of its economy on health care; the U.S. spends 16 percent. The extra 6 percent of GDP amounts to more than $800 billion per year. The spending gap between the two nations is almost entirely because of higher overhead. Canadians don't need thousands of actuaries to set premiums or thousands of lawyers to deny care. Even the U.S. Medicare program has 80 percent to 90 percent lower administrative costs than private Medicare Advantage policies. And providers and suppliers can't charge as much when they have to deal with a single payer. . .

Because most of the difference in spending is for nonpatient care, Canadians actually get more of most services. We see the doctor more often and take more drugs. We even have more lung-transplant surgery. We do get less heart surgery, but not so much less that we are any more likely to die of heart attacks. And we now live nearly three years longer, and our infant mortality is 20 percent lower. . .

The Canadian system does have its problems, and these also provide important lessons. Notwithstanding a few well-publicized and misleading cases, Canadians needing urgent care get immediate treatment. But we do wait too long for much elective care, including appointments with family doctors and specialists and selected surgical procedures. We also do a poor job managing chronic disease.

However, according to the New York-based Commonwealth Fund, both the American and the Canadian systems fare badly in these areas. . .

Canadian health care delivery problems have nothing to do with our single-payer system and can be fixed by re-engineering for quality.

U.S. health policy would be miles ahead if policymakers could learn these lessons. But they seem less interested in Canada's, or any other nation's, experience than ever. Why?

American democracy runs on money. Pharmaceutical and insurance companies have the fuel. Analysts see hundreds of billions of premiums wasted on overhead that could fund care for the uninsured. But industry executives and shareholders see bonuses and dividends.

Compounding the confusion is traditional American ignorance of what happens north of the border, which makes it easy to mislead people. Boilerplate antigovernment rhetoric does the same. The U.S. media, legislators and even presidents have claimed that our "socialized" system doesn't let us choose our own doctors. In fact, Canadians have free choice of physicians. It's Americans these days who are restricted to "in-plan" doctors.

Unfortunately, many Americans won't get to hear the straight goods because vested interests are promoting a caricature of the Canadian experience.

INSURANCE COMPANY DENIES LIFE SAVING AID BECAUSE PATIENT HAD USE POT

Hawaii Tribune - Waimea resident Kimberly Reyes, who was diagnosed with hepatitis - in March 2008, had been told in July that she had less than 30 days to live. Her family claimed she had followed doctor's orders, but her insurance carrier, Hawaii Medical Service Association, denied the liver transplant she needed to survive because three toxicology tests showed trace amounts of cannabis in her system. . .

Reyes' husband, Robin, and her mother, Noni Kuhns, said HMSA's decision was based upon a failure to comply with the insurer's policy strictly forbidding drug use. However, both maintain that neither HMSA nor her doctors told them of HMSA's policy on drug use.

Following at least five phone calls from Stephens Media over a one-week period, HMSA Public Information Officer Chuck Marshall replied through an e-mail that HMSA would not comment. HMSA also declined to provide the insurance carrier's policies on drug use or transplant approval.

JAZZ IS LOSING ITS AUDIENCE

Terry Teachout, Wall Street Journal - The bad news came from the National Endowment for the Arts' latest Survey of ­Public Participation in the Arts, the fourth to be conducted by the NEA (in participation with the U.S. Census Bureau) since 1982. These are the findings that made jazz musicians sit up and take notice:

- In 2002, the year of the last survey, 10.8% of adult Americans attended at least one jazz performance. In 2008, that figure fell to 7.8%.

- Not only is the audience for jazz shrinking, but it's growing older-fast. The median age of adults in America who attended a live jazz performance in 2008 was 46. In 1982 it was 29.

- Older people are also much less likely to attend jazz performances today than they were a few years ago. The percentage of Americans between the ages of 45 and 54 who attended a live jazz performance in 2008 was 9.8%. In 2002, it was 13.9%. That's a 30% drop in attendance.

- Even among ­college-educated adults, the audience for live jazz has shrunk significantly, to 14.9% in 2008 from 19.4% in 1982.

These numbers indicate that the audience for jazz in America is both aging and shrinking at an alarming rate. What I find no less revealing, though, is that the median age of the jazz audience is now comparable to the ages for attendees of live performances of classical music (49 in 2008 vs. 40 in 1982), opera (48 in 2008 vs. 43 in 1982), nonmusical plays (47 in 2008 vs. 39 in 1982) and ballet (46 in 2008 vs. 37 in 1982). In 1982, by contrast, jazz fans were much younger than their high-culture counterparts.

I suspect it means, among other things, that the average American now sees jazz as a form of high art. Nor should this come as a surprise to anyone, since most of the jazz musicians that I know feel pretty much the same way. They regard themselves as artists, not entertainers, masters of a musical language that is comparable in seriousness to classical music. . .

Jazz has changed greatly since the '30s, when Louis Armstrong, one of the ­supreme musical geniuses of the 20th century, was also a pop star, a gravel-voiced crooner who made movies with Bing Crosby and Mae West and whose records sold by the truckload to fans who knew nothing about jazz except that Satchmo played and sang it. As late as the early '50s, jazz was still for the most part a genuinely popular music, a utilitarian, song-based idiom to which ordinary people could dance if they felt like it. But by the '60s, it had evolved into a challenging concert music whose complexities repelled many of the same youngsters who were falling hard for rock and soul. . .

A NEW APPROACH TO PRISONS

Physorg - U.S. prisons are too punitive and often fail to rehabilitate, but targeting prisoners' behavior, reducing prison populations and offering job skills could reduce prisoner aggression and prevent recidivism, a researcher told the American Psychological Association.

"The current design of prison systems don't work," said criminal justice expert Joel Dvoskin, PhD, of the University of Arizona. "Overly punitive approaches used on violent, angry criminals only provide a breeding ground for more anger and more violence." . . .
Applying behavior modification and social learning principles can work in corrections, he said. "For example, systematic reinforcement of pro-social behaviors is a powerful and effective way to change behavior, but it has never been used as a cornerstone of corrections," he said.

Also, punishment can be effective in changing behavior, but it only works in the short term and immediately after the unwanted behavior happens, he said. While there is a place for punishment, it should be used in psychologically informed and effective ways. However, punishment should not be one-size-fits-all, Dvoskin said.

"We need to know what may be behind the criminal behavior to know what the best treatment is," he said. "A person who commits crimes when drunk but not when sober is likely suffering from an alcohol problem. Treating the alcohol problem may diminish the criminal behavior.". . .

Finally, bringing work back into prisons can benefit prisoners by teaching them job skills and filling unmet job needs. With the increase in the criminal population and lack of increase in prison staff, "there is not enough supervision to allow prisoners to work and build skills," Dvoskin said. "This makes it very hard to re-enter into the civilian world and increases the likelihood of going back to prison."

WHY DOESN'T COMEDY GET MORE RESPECT?

Ty Burr, Boston Globe - Who decides that laughter is a lesser response than the sigh or the sob? Why isn't the gift of transfixing audiences with delighted surprise, with forging new connections from the absurdities of life, with undercutting pretentiousness and reminding us of the shock of the real, not considered a profound thing?

Perhaps the answer lies in a comedian's psychological profile. The stereotype, of course, is of the class clown who will do anything for a laugh, with laughter standing in for attention and attention standing in for love. The competitive drive that fuels a racing mind can mask deep insecurity, always feeding, always hungry. . .

That drive can create great comic art out of isolation, resentment, and self-pity: Think of all the "little men," before and after Chaplin, who have gotten laughs from exacting revenge on the pompous and complacent. . .

The mold was set by Chaplin but the rigidity of the Hollywood studio system, in which moguls owned their stars outright, kept comedians in their place. Those who tried to break out learned the hard way, as when silent star Harry Langdon tried to imitate Chaplin's pathos and saw his career dry up overnight.

It wasn't until the rise of Jerry Lewis in the 1950s and early 1960s - the solo, post-Dean Martin Jerry - that slapstick turned ambitious again. "The Nutty Professor" (1963) was a manic comedy laced with real anger and hurt; within the decade, Lewis would embark on the infamous "The Day the Clown Cried," still never publicly screened, about a death camp comedian leading children to the gas chambers. . .

The persecution of stand-up artist Lenny Bruce at the hands of censors and the law in the 1960s gave the culture its comedian-martyr, suffering for our sins of repression, and many of the ambitious comics since have worked from his template. Melding Bruce and Jonathan Winters, Robin Williams erupted on late-70s TV sitcoms and in performance like a volcano of the Id. . .

Great comedy and great drama both spring from the delusions of fictional characters, but they point in opposite directions. Tragedy makes small characters big, magnifies mistakes until they're epic, flatters our own daily disasters by equating them with Fate. Think of heroes from Oedipus to Lear to Willy Loman.

Comedy, at its best, does the reverse: It cuts the powerful down to size and gives the common man a voice. Moliere's Bourgeois Gentleman is revealed to be an officious twit, the generals and presidents of "Dr. Strangelove" are misguided buffoons, a Will Ferrell newscaster can be a blowhard marvel. The idiot savant is ennobled: the Nutty Professor and Happy Gilmore and Ace Ventura insist that surrealism and studied rudeness are the only sane responses to an insane world.

It's through this endless clash between lowbrow and high, in fact, that culture itself comes - that standards are established and values assigned across boundaries of class and power. Of course comedy matters. If comedians themselves ever realize that, they may yet have the last laugh.

OBAMA'S PLAN TO HELP HOMEOWNERS IS A BUST

Zach Carter, Alternet - In February of 2009, newly inaugurated President Obama unveiled a foreclosure prevention program called Making Home Affordable, promising to keep "up to 3 to 4 million" borrowers from losing their homes. But like a similar initiative adopted under the Bush administration, the Obama plan is flawed because it relies on the housing industry itself -- namely the industry's debt collectors, known as mortgage servicers -- to fix the problem. And like the Bush plan, it isn't working especially well, as the Obama administration's own numbers now show. While 1.5 million homes have gone into foreclosure in 2009 as of June 30, just 235,247 borrowers have been granted trial loan modifications under the Obama plan since its inception. . .

Making Home Affordable asks mortgage servicers to identify troubled borrowers and fast-track them to relief. But servicers specialize in squeezing borrowers for money, and have never been interested in devising long-term solutions for people in trouble. The poorly paid individuals, some of them offshore, that they hire to contact homeowners are not trained to renegotiate loans. Obama's program, like the Bush plan, is strictly voluntary -- if servicers don't want to participate, they don't have to. As in the Bush plan, servicers who do participate face no penalties for failing to assist qualified borrowers, and no government agency is policing servicers to make sure they live up to the terms of the contract. Meanwhile, they actually benefit from letting homes fall into foreclosure, because foreclosure means they are guaranteed an upfront payment from the sale of the home.

"Nothing has changed," says Daniel Lindsey, an attorney with Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago who heads the group's home ownership preservation effort. . .

Economists at the Boston Federal Reserve published a paper last month indicating that only 8.5 percent of seriously delinquent borrowers received any kind of loan modification in 2007 and 2008, while only 3 percent received a loan modification that actually reduced their monthly payment. A lot of this so-called help actually drove borrowers deeper into debt and increased their monthly bills. Instead of cutting the interest rate or the loan principal -- that is, the total amount the borrower owes -- servicers would add missed payments and penalty fees to the principal, resulting in more overall debt and higher monthly bills for borrowers. According to an analysis by the Center for Responsible Lending, an advocacy group that promotes fair lending practices, less than 20 percent of the loan modifications reported by Hope Now actually reduced borrowers' monthly payments. . .

Talking to a mortgage servicer is like haggling with the phone company -- except over hundreds of thousands of dollars, your credit rating and your future financial security. When you call a servicer, you're first treated to an electronic call management system. A digital voice warns you that you are talking to a debt collection service and any information you offer will be used for those purposes. The voice then asks you for information about your loan, your house and yourself. Once this is over, you listen to hold music while you wait for an actual person to answer the phone. Depending on the servicer and the time of day, it can take 15 minutes just to get through to an actual human being.

When and if the caller does get through to a live person, many borrowers are simply told they cannot be helped and need to send in payments. But some borrowers get placed on hold and referred to another person in another department and another expert. This can happen several times before you speak to someone with the corporate authority to actually help you. Sometimes calls dead-end in an answering machine. Servicer employees often take down borrower information and take weeks to get back to them. And servicers rarely assign specific people to handle individual borrower cases, so every time a borrower calls, they're subjected to the same bureaucratic mess. . .

THE HEALTH INSURERS HAVE ALREADY WON

Business Week - As the health reform fight shifts this month from a vacationing Washington to congressional districts and local airwaves around the country, much more of the battle than most people realize is already over. The likely victors are insurance giants such as UnitedHealth Group, Aetna, and WellPoint. The carriers have succeeded in redefining the terms of the reform debate to such a degree that no matter what specifics emerge in the voluminous bill Congress may send to President Obama this fall, the insurance industry will emerge more profitable. Health reform could come with a $1 trillion price tag over the next decade, and it may complicate matters for some large employers. But insurance CEOs ought to be smiling. . .

The industry has already accomplished its main goal of at least curbing, and maybe blocking altogether, any new publicly administered insurance program that could grab market share from the corporations that dominate the business. UnitedHealth has distinguished itself by more deftly and aggressively feeding sophisticated pricing and actuarial data to information-starved congressional staff members. With its rivals, the carrier has also achieved a secondary aim of constraining the new benefits that will become available to tens of millions of people who are currently uninsured. That will make the new customers more lucrative to the industry. . .

PHARMA CEOS MAKE HUGE SALARIES

Unsilent Generation - One aspect of the health care reform battle which gets little attention is the cushy environment of the drug company executive. Fiercepharma blog, which tracks the industry not long ago ran a listing of all the dough these CEOs make.. . . Figures are for 2008.

1. Bill Weldon - Johnson & Johnson - $29.4M
2. Miles White - Abbott Laboratories - $28.3M
3. Bernard Poussot - Wyeth - $25M
4. Jim Cornelius - Bristol-Myers Squibb - $25M
5. Richard Clark - Merck - $19.9M
6. Robert Parkinson - Baxter International - $16M
7. David Vasella - Novartis - $15.1M
8. Jeffrey Kindler - Pfizer - $14.8M
9. Frank Baldino - Cephalon - $14.5M
10. John Lechleiter - Eli Lilly - $13M

OBAMA'S SNEAKY SECRET PHARMA DEAL

ABC News - In June, the Senate Finance Committee and the White House jubilantly announced that they'd come to a deal with the pharmaceutical industry. But as details of that deal have come out, the White House has issued mixed and conflicting messages as to what they knew and what they'd signed off on.

At the time, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chair of the Senate Finance Committee, announced that pharmaceutical companies had agreed to a deal as part of an overall health care reform package, where the companies will provide, as Baucus put it, "affordable prices on prescription drugs when Medicare benefits don't cover the cost of prescriptions," as well as kicking in some money for health care reform efforts.

President Obama said in a paper statement that "the agreement reached today to lower prescription drug costs for seniors will be an important part of the legislation I expect to sign into law in December. This is a tangible example of the type of reform that will lower costs while assuring quality health care for every American."

But on Thursday the New York Times' David Kirkpatrick reported that under pressure from pharmaceutical industry lobbyists, the White House "assured drug makers that the administration stood by a behind-the-scenes deal to block any Congressional effort to extract cost savings from them beyond an agreed-upon $80 billion."

On the campaign trail, then-Sen. Obama had supported measures to allow the government to re-negotiate drug costs, but apparently this deal would preclude such a move.

Former House Energy and Commerce chairman Bill Tauzin, R-La., now the head of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, told the Times, "We were assured: 'We need somebody to come in first. If you come in first, you will have a rock-solid deal.' Who is ever going to go into a deal with the White House again if they don't keep their word? You are just going to duke it out instead.”

"They wanted a big player to come in and set the bar for everybody else," Tauzin told the Times, asserting that in terms of contributions from the pharmaceutical industry, "$80 billion is the max, no more or less. Adding other stuff changes the deal."

Tauzin said that after the deal was reached with Baucus, he confirmed the terms of the deal with White House Chief if Staff Rahm Emanuel, deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina, and health care reform czar Nancy-Ann DeParle.

"They blessed the deal," Tauzin told the Times. "As far we are concerned, that is a done deal. It's up to the White House and Senator Baucus to follow through.". . .

After the Times story appeared, some Democrats on the Hill expressed disappointment that the White House and Senate Finance Committee had made this deal with the lobbying group without consulting them, eliminating a way to help pay for the health care reform legislation.

PASSENGERS IMPRISONED OVERNIGHT ON SMALL PLANE AT AIRPORT

Star Tribune, MN - Forty seven passengers spent the night trapped inside a small airplane, parked at the Rochester airport, complete with crying babies and the aroma of over-used toilets.

The Express Jet Airlines that operated the plane says the flight was diverted to Rochester because of Twin Cities thunderstorms, and that airline regulations prevented passengers from getting off the plane. . .

The airline crew on the plane reached their maximum work hours in the air, so another crew had to be flown in. The alternative of chartering a bus didn't work out. And letting the passengers into the Rochester airport was not possible because they would have to go through security screening again, and the screeners had gone home for the day.

What about just letting the passengers sleep in the airport terminal? "That was not provided as an option by ground services personnel at the airport,'' said Nicholas.

SENIORS WORRIED ABOUT HEALTHCARE PLANS

Ceci Connolly, Washington Post - Senior citizens are emerging as a formidable obstacle to President Obama's ambitious health-care reform plans.

The discontent in the powerful and highly organized voting bloc has risen to such a level that the administration is scrambling to devise a strategy to woo the elderly.

Obama's task will not be easy. Proposals to squeeze more than $500 billion out of the growth of Medicare over the next decade have fueled fears that his effort to expand coverage to millions of younger, uninsured Americans will damage elder care. As a result, barely one-third of seniors support a health-care overhaul, several polls found. . .

From the raw numbers, it appears seniors are the net losers under bills approved by three House committees last week. The legislation trims $563 billion out of Medicare's growth rate over the next 10 years while pumping in about $320 billion. Without any changes, the program is expected to cost about $6.4 trillion over the same period.

But three retiree groups and several independent policy analysts say most of the proposed savings affect providers, rather than beneficiaries, and have the potential to improve quality over the long term. Discounts for prescription drugs, higher reimbursements for many doctors and elimination of co-payments for preventive services are some of the ideas advocates applauded.

"I don't see anything that will affect beneficiaries' access to care, though some of it will depend on implementation," said Joseph Baker, president of the Medicare Rights Center, a nonprofit group focused on older Americans. . .

Hospitals would receive smaller-than-anticipated payments under the House plans. One provision would slash payments to hospitals that have high readmission rates. Medicare estimates that 19 percent of the unpleasant, costly readmissions are "preventable." . . .

BLASTING THE RIGHT IS NOT A POLICY

Sam Smith, Progressive Review - Liberalism has been long been trapped by the notion that its virtues are defined by the evils of the political right. In fact, while opposing the right may be a necessity, it's not a policy.

The dangers of MSNBC style liberalism - i.e. behaving like Bill O'Reilly but just flipping the issues - has been well demonstrated during the healthcare debate. By obsessing on things like the conservative protests at Democratic town meetings, there has been little interest in looking at the Democratic health plans and seeing why so many are so easily worried by them.

For example, the Democratic plans don't build on what's working now i.e. lowering the age of Medicare or otherwise expanding its approach.

They are hopelessly complex, an open invitation to political disaster.

They contains a lot of cutesy provisions that may appeal to health industry lobbies but make what's going in the bills seem opaque.

They treat health too much as a budget issue without dealing adequately with people's medical concerns.

They are far too friendly with the health industry and the bills show it.

If the Democrats bomb on healthcare, the primary blame rests with them. The right's opposition was a given from the start. What wasn't a given was that the Democrats would mess things up so badly.

It didn't have to be like this. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that 53% of Americans strongly support lowering Medicare to 55. Another 26% support it some what. That's 79% of Americans favorable to a plan the Democrats wouldn't even consider.

ADD FRANK RICH TO THE OBAMA SKEPTICS

Frank Rich, NY Times - In this maze of powerful moneyed interests, it's not clear who any American in either party should or could root for. The bipartisan nature of the beast can be encapsulated by the remarkable progress of Billy Tauzin, the former Louisiana congressman. Tauzin was a founding member of the Blue Dog Democrats in 1994. A year later, he bolted to the Republicans. Now he is chief of PhRMA, the biggest pharmaceutical trade group. In the 2008 campaign, Obama ran a television ad pillorying Tauzin for his role in preventing Medicare from negotiating for lower drug prices. Last week The Los Angeles Times reported - and The New York Times confirmed - that Tauzin, an active player in White House health care negotiations, had secured a behind-closed-doors flip-flop, enlisting the administration to push for continued protection of drug prices. Now we know why the president has ducked his campaign pledge to broadcast such negotiations on C-Span. . .

Obama promised change we could actually believe in. His first questionable post-victory step was to assemble an old boys' club of Robert Rubin proteges and Goldman-Citi alumni as the White House economic team, including a Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, who failed in his watchdog role at the New York Fed as Wall Stree's latest bubble first inflated and then burst. The questions about Geithner's role in adjudicating the subsequent bailouts aren't going away, and neither is the angry public sense that the fix is still in. We just learned that nine of those bailed-out banks - which in total received $175 billion of taxpayers' money, but as yet have repaid only $50 billion - are awarding a total of $32.6 billion in bonuses for 2009. . .

The best political news for the president remains the Republicans. It's a measure of how out of touch G.O.P. leaders like Mitch McConnell and John Boehner are that they keep trying to scare voters by calling Obama a socialist. They have it backward. The larger fear is that Obama might be just another corporatist, punking voters much as the Republicans do when they claim to be all for the common guy.

THE FOG OF NUMBERS

James Howard Kunstler - One of main reasons behind the vast confusion now reigning in the USA, our failure to construct a coherent consensus about what is happening to us (or what to do about it), is our foolish obsession with econometrics -- viewing the world solely through the "lens" of mathematical models. We think that just because we can measure things in numbers, we can make sense of them.

For decades we measured the health of our economy (and therefore of our society) by the number of "housing starts" recorded month-to-month. For decades, this translated into the number of suburban tract houses being built in the asteroid belts of our towns and cities. When housing starts were up, the simple-minded declared that things were good; when down, bad.
What this view failed to consider was that all these suburban houses added up to a living arrangement with no future. . .

It's especially ironic that given our preoccupation with numbers, we have arrived at the point where numbers just can't be comprehended anymore. This week, outstanding world derivatives were declared to have reached the 1 quadrillion mark. Commentators lately -- e.g. NPR's "Planet Money" broadcast -- have struggled to explain to listeners exactly what a trillion is in images such as the number of dollar bills stacked up to the planet Venus or the number of seconds that add up to three ice ages plus two warmings. . . We have flown up our own collective numeric bung-hole.

America will never be able to cover its current outstanding debt. We're effectively finished at all three levels: household, corporate, and government. Who, for instance, can really comprehend what to do about the number problems infesting Fannie Mae and the mortgages associated with her? There's really only one way out of this predicament: to get ready for a much lower standard of living and much different daily living arrangements.

PHARMAS HIKING DRUG PRICES TO PAY FOR FREE SAMPLES

Amy Calder, Morning Sentinel, ME - A report in the May issue of PLoS Medicine, an international medical journal, argues that the practice of giving free drug samples to patients not only poses a health risk to them, but also raises the cost of care.

The report explains that drug companies often make up for the costs of giving away free samples, considered by them a cost of marketing, through higher prices and increased sales. The report's authors, Susan Chimonas of the Center on Medicine as a Profession at Columbia University, and Jerome P. Kassirer, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine and a Tufts University School of Medicine professor, also dispute some long-held claims that the gift of free samples to patients can benefit people of low income.

Studies show that fewer than one-third of people who receive free samples are poor and uninsured, and those patients might not be able to continue taking the medicine once the samples are used up -- because they cannot afford to pay for a prescription.

Drug-expiration dates on free samples might be overlooked, posing risks to patients, the report adds.

THE SMALL STATE GANG THAT RUNS THE SENATE

This is an issue the Review has raised for the past four decades. This is one of the few times we have seen it mentioned in the conventional media.

Alec MacGillis, Washington Post - Wonder why President Obama is having a hard time enacting his agenda after sweeping to victory and with large congressional majorities on his side? Look to the Senate, the chamber designed to thwart popular will.

There is much grousing on the left about the filibuster, the threat of which has taken such hold that routine bills now need 60 votes. Getting less attention is the undemocratic character of the Senate itself. . .

The Senate Finance Committee's "Gang of Six" that is drafting health-care legislation that may shape the final deal -- without a public insurance option -- represents six states that are among the least populous in the country: Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, Maine, New Mexico and Iowa.

Between them, those six states hold 8.4 million people -- less than New Jersey -- and represent 3 percent of the U.S. population. North Dakota and Wyoming each have fewer than 80,000 uninsured people, in a country where about 47 million lack insurance. In the House, those six states have 13 seats out of 435, 3 percent of the whole. In the Senate, those six members are crafting what may well be the blueprint for reform.

Climate change legislation, which passed in the House, also faces daunting odds. Why? Because agriculture, coal and oil interests hold far more sway in the Senate. In the House, the big coal state of Wyoming has a single vote to New York's 29 and California's 53. In the Senate, each state has two. The two Dakotas (total population: 1.4 million) together have twice as much say in the Senate as does Florida (18.3 million) or Texas (24.3 million) or Illinois (12.9 million). . .

Was this really what the founders had in mind? One popular story tells of In Philadelphia in 1787, the smaller states favored the New Jersey Plan -- one chamber with equal representation per state -- while James Madison argued for two chambers, both apportioned by population, which would benefit his Virginia.

The delegates finally settled on the Connecticut Compromise, or the Great Compromise. Seats in the lower chamber would be apportioned by population (with some residents counting more than others, of course) while seats in the upper chamber would be awarded two per state.

The idea was to safeguard states' rights at a time when the former colonies were still trying to get used to this new country of theirs. But the big/small divide was nothing like what we have today. Virginia, the biggest of the original 13 states, had 538,000 people in 1780, or 12 times as many people as the smallest state, Delaware.

Today, California is 70 times as large as the smallest state, Wyoming, whose population of 533,000 is smaller than that of the average congressional district, and, yes, smaller than that of Washington D.C., which has zero votes in Congress to Wyoming's three. The 10 largest states are home to more than half the people in the country, yet have only a fifth of the votes in the Senate. The 21 smallest states together hold fewer people than California's 36.7 million -- which means there are 42 senators who together represent fewer constituents than Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein. And under Senate rules, of course, those 42 senators -- representing barely more than a tenth of the country's population -- can mount a filibuster.. . .

URBAN STATHOOD: WHY WE NEED MORE STATES By Sam Smith

OVER A BILLION PEOPLE LIVE IN WATER SCARCE AREAS

World Watch - The Stockholm International Water Institute calculated in 2008 that 1.4 billion people live in "closed basins"-regions where existing water cannot meet the agricultural, industrial, municipal, and environmental needs of all. Their estimate is consistent with a 2007 Food and Agriculture Organization calculation that 1.2 billion people live in countries and regions that are water-scarce. And the situation is projected to worsen rapidly: FAO estimates that the number of water-scarce will rise to 1.8 billion by 2025. . .

"Water scarcity" has several meanings. Physical water scarcity exists wherever available water is insufficient to meet demand: parts of the southwestern United States, northern Mexico, North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, northern China, and southeastern Australia are characterized by physical water scarcity. Economic water scarcity occurs when water is available but inaccessible because of a lack of investment in water provision or poor management and regulation of water resources. Much of the water scarcity of sub-Saharan Africa falls into this category.

Signs of scarcity are plentiful. Several major rivers, including the Indus, Rio Grande, Colorado, Murray-Darling, and Yellow, no longer reach the sea year-round as a growing share of their waters are claimed for various uses. Water tables are falling as groundwater is overpumped in South Asia, northern China, the Middle East, North Africa, and the southwestern United States, often propping up food production unsustainably. The World Bank estimates that some 15 percent of India's food, for example, is produced using water from nonrenewable aquifers. Another sign of scarcity is that desalination, a limited and expensive water supply solution, is on the rise.

Water scarcity has many causes. Population growth is a major driver at the regional and global levels, but other factors play a large role locally. Pollution reduces the amount of usable water available to farmers, industry, and cities. The World Bank and the government of China have estimated, for instance, that 54 percent of the water in seven main rivers in China is unusable because of pollution. In addition, urbanization tends to increase domestic and industrial demand for water, as does rising incomes-two trends prominent in rapidly developing countries such as China, India, and Brazil.

A looming new threat to water supplies is climate change, which is causing rainfall patterns to shift, ice stocks to melt, and soil moisture content and runoff to change. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the area of our planet classified as "very dry" has more than doubled since the 1970s, and the volume of glaciers in many regions and snow pack in northern hemisphere mountains-two important freshwater sources-has decreased significantly. . .

TASER TALE OF THE DAY

Casper Star Tribune - State agents are investigating a Saturday incident in which a 76-year-old man driving a tractor in Glenrock was tasered by police after allegedly failing to obey their orders. The Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation will look into whether anyone connected to the incident committed a crime, said Special Agent Tim Hill.

The incident happened at Glenrock's annual Deer Creek Days event. Glenrock police said the man, who was operating an antique tractor, failed to obey directions in a parade, Hill said. At some point afterward, police subdued and tasered the man. During the incident, the man's tractor apparently ran into a police car, Hill said.

UNDERSTANDING THE EMPLOYMENT FIGURES

Robert Reich - The economy is getting worse more slowly. That's just about the only clear reading that's coming from the economic reports, including this morning's important one on employment. The pace of job losses slowed -- payrolls fell by 247,000, after a 443,000 loss in June, and the official jobless rate dropped from 9.5 to 9.4 percent.

Be careful with these figures, though. They don't include the increasing numbers of people working part-time who'd rather have full-time jobs. Nor do they include a large number who have given up looking for work. They don't reflect the many millions who have found new jobs that pay less than the old ones they lost. And they don't include one of the shortest typical workweeks on record, for those who still have full-time jobs. . . Nor, for that matter, do the numbers reflect the 130,000 people who are coming into the labor force each month ready and willing to work, who can't find jobs.

If all these people are included, my estimate is that one out of five Americans who would otherwise be working full time are now underemployed. We are still experiencing the biggest decline of any post-World War II economic slump.

The overall economy continues to contract but more slowly than before. Consumers are not buying, exports are still dropping, and business investment is still in the doldrums, so the only clear reason is that the stimulus is beginning to kick in. Yet -- here's another important thing to watch -- job losses continue to outpace that contraction. In other words, employers are using this downdraft to lay off more workers, proportionately, than they have since the Great Depression. . .

So let's be grateful that the economy is getting worse more slowly than it was. But don't be lured into thinking we're ever going back to where we were. Most of the jobs that have been lost are never coming back. . .

MAJOR GLACIERS IN MELTDOWN

CNN - U.S. scientists monitoring shrinking glaciers in Washington and Alaska reported this week that a major meltdown is under way. The Gulcana glacier in Alaska is one of three glaciers considered a benchmark by the U.S. Geological Survey.

A 50-year government study found that the world's glaciers are melting at a rapid and alarming rate. . . The melt of glaciers is resulting in higher sea levels and affecting ecosystems and the rivers that emanate from these glaciers. . .

A STONEHENGE FOR OUR TIME

HOW DIFFERENT AGENCIES ARE SPENDING STIMULUS FUNDS

NEW ORLEANS DA WANT SMALL POT CHARGES HANDLED LIKE TRAFFIC TICKETS

WWL - New Orleans' District Attorney says people caught with small amounts of marijuana should not be arrested.

"It would allow for sort of a releases, relieving the crowded conditions in the parish jail, because many of these people could be given essentially a traffic ticket and a summons to show up in court to handle their particular marijuana charge," Leon Cannizzaro said.

Leon Cannizzaro also called on the City Council to make it so that such pot possession cases don't have to be prosecuted in the state court system.

"Consider a city ordinance which would allow for the prosecution of the simple possession of marijuana cases in the municipal court," Cannizzaro requested of the city council.

Cannizzaro says some 700 simple marijuana possession cases are currently pending in criminal court in New Orleans. He says making it a municipal offense would open make the courts more efficient.

The D.A. wanted to make it clear that he doesn't want this to be misinterpreted. "I am not here advocating the legalization or decriminalization of marijuana in any way whatsoever," he told the council.

Cannizzaro pointed out that the maximum penalty for simple marijuana possession would remain six months in jail and/or a $500 fine.

FOLLOW THE BOUNCING SPECTER

538 - In the first month or so after becoming a Democrat, [Arlen] Specter was voting with his new party about two-thirds of the time on contentious votes. While there are some less loyal Democrats -- say, Ben Nelson of Nebraska -- who only vote with their party about half the time, this was certainly less than what most Democratic observers were hoping for.

But since then, indeed, something has changed. Well, a couple of things have changed. On May 27th, Congressman Joe Sestak announced that he intended to challenge Specter for the Democratic nomination. And since that time, Specter has voted with his party on 28 out of 29 contentious votes, or 97 percent of the time.

Specter's overall party loyalty score since becoming a Democrat -- counting votes both before and after the primary challenge -- is 87 percent. This contrasts with the 44 percent of the time that he broke ranks to side with the Democratic on contentious votes while still a member of the Republican Party. He's basically been behaving like a mainline, liberal Democrat.

CALIFORNIA TOWN SHUTS DOWN 8 YEAR OLD'S LEMONADE STAND FOR LACK OF BUSINESS LICENSE

Fresno Bee - Eight-year-old Daniela Earnest has made lemonade out of lemons in more ways than one this week.

Hoping to raise money for a family trip to Disneyland, the Tulare girl opened a lemonade stand Monday. But because Daniela didn't have a business license, the city of Tulare shut it down the same day.

From that came a radio station's offer of Disneyland tickets to Daniela's family -- in exchange for 30 cups of lemonade -- and an appearance in front of the Tulare City Council on Tuesday night that will likely lead to a compromise allowing her lemonade stand and other pint-sized business ventures to operate legally . . .

Tulare officials said they cannot recall ever shutting down a lemonade stand before this week. But it's not altogether uncommon. Authorities across the nation have done the same. And in Fresno, a Huntington Boulevard shaved ice machine run by a resident mostly so neighborhood kids could get a sno-cone on hot days was shut down by a Fresno code enforcer .

Ed Earnest, Daniela's father, said Garcia got "a bad rap" from critics about his enforcement actions. "He was just doing his job," Earnest said. . .

Vice Mayor Philip Vandegrift said a compromise -- possibly asking lemonade stand operators to pay a nominal fee or establishing a license fee waiver for children under a certain age -- could be the outcome of Daniela's experience.

However, the city needs to enforce vendor laws, Vandegrift said, "otherwise we'll have people on every corner."

WHY AMERICAN POLITICS DOESN'T WORK

Counterpunch - Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman (R) has loaned herself $19 million for her 2010 [California] gubernatorial campaign. She raised an additional $6.8 million, bringing her to over $25 million for the 2Q-2009. Money isn't always a guarantee of success in a race like this: Northwest Airlines CEO Al Checchi (D) spent $40 million from his own pocket in his 1998 run for California Governor but captured just 12.5% in the crowded primary..

RECOVERED HISTORY: THE WASPS OF WORLD WAR II

Morning Sentinel, ME - President Obama on July 1 signed a bill that awards the Congressional Gold Medal to the women who flew non-combat military missions in this country, which allowed men to conduct the overseas combat missions.

About 300 of the 1,102 women who served as WASPs remain. . . In addition to towing targets fired on by ground troops, WASPs ferried thousands of new aircraft from the factories to points of embarkation to the battlefront. They also flew missions for aerial-gunnery practice and tested aircraft.

BILL CLINTON'S KOREA TRIP HANDLED LIKE CAMPAIGN EVENT

NY Post- Bill Clinton's triumphant return from North Korea with two rescued US journalists had Hollywood written all over it -- from the Burbank airport to the big-time producer who bankrolled the expedition to the celebrity public-relations firm that orchestrated the homecoming.

A key player in Clinton's high-flying diplomatic mission to rescue Laura Ling and Euna Lee was entertainment mogul Steve Bing, a longtime "Friend of Bill" who lent the ex-president his private Boeing 737.

The multimillionaire mogul paid about $200,000 in fuel and other costs that came with the trans-Pacific flight.

Bing's Shangri-La entertainment firm also funded a major logistical effort to carefully showcase Clinton's arrival in Tinseltown -- which featured Ling lauding the former president while almost in tears.

The company knows a blockbuster when it sees one, having produced Tom Hanks' "Polar Express," "Beowulf," starring Crispin Glover and Angelina Jolie, and Martin Scorsese's 2008 Rolling Stones rock-umentary, "Shine a Light," filmed at Clinton's 60th birthday bash at the Beacon Theater on the Upper West Side.

Hollywood p.r. firm Rogers & Cowan, which represents Bing along with a bevy of A-list celebs, began organizing the arrival ceremony after it got word Tuesday morning -- while Clinton was still on the ground in Pyongyang -- to get ready, according to a Hollywood source.

The firm chose as its venue Hangar 25 at Bob Hope International Airport in Burbank, a solar-powered facility that has hosted other press events.

Bing is a major financial backer of Bill and Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party and environmental causes, and has a business constructing environmentally friendly hangars. . .

The p.r. firm closely coordinated with Bill Clinton's foundation, which worked with former Vice President Al Gore's Current TV to have family members on hand for the homecoming.